Iziko Slave Lodge

The Iziko Slave Lodge stands at 49 Adderley Street, at the top of the Company's Garden, in central Cape Town, South Africa. Built in 1679 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC), it housed enslaved people owned by the Company, who numbered several hundred at a time. Men, women and children lived in crowded conditions and worked on Company projects, and the lodge also served as a place of punishment and, for women, as a brothel for the colony. After the VOC's rule ended and slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1834, the building was converted in the 19th century: it served as a government office, a library and then from 1815 as the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony, with a Neo-classical facade added in 1810. The building later housed the Cultural History Museum, and in 1998 it was reopened as a museum of slavery and social history. The permanent exhibitions include the Slavery at the Cape exhibition, with testimonies and objects, and displays on the 'Life at the Lodge', the origin of the enslaved people from Africa, India and Southeast Asia, and the abolition. Other galleries cover ancient Egypt, Cape ceramics and history of the building, and temporary shows deal with social justice. The curatorial approach combines documentary evidence, archaeological finds and names of enslaved people, with a memorial in the forecourt marking the sites of the lodge's yard. The building has been repaired and adapted several times, and it keeps the thick walls and courtyard of the 17th century behind the later facade. It is part of the Iziko Museums of South Africa network. The lodge stands within a short walk of St George's Cathedral, Greenmarket Square and the Company's Garden, so it fits easily into a central city heritage walk.